Hatches in the floor/sole

Floor half width doesn't leave much room for an inspection hatch.

I've been managing to get an hours or so every day working on Tiki. Mostly nothing too exciting just installing stringers and stiffeners and many yards of fillets. I've gotten probably 90% of the fillets done. These include 1 inch radius fillets on each side of the bulkheads and 1/4" fillets on the tops of all the stringers and stiffeners.

I did get a little to zealous with fillets and made some where bunk supports will be installed:(

Next on the agenda is the Floor/Sole. The plans call for a solid floor permanently in place. The volume is then vented via small holes in the backbone and in BH4 and finally a hole with a 90 deg angle fitting in BH5. Then a hose brings the hose up near/above the waterline.

Problem is that I've seen Tikis with lower hull rot and I believe this is due to condensation that can collect in this "sealed" volume. There are about 4 layers of fiberglass on the exterior but in the interior there are many areas only covered by 2 coats of epoxy according to plans.

I don't like volumes that I can access and inspect so I'm thinking about couple flush hatches in the floor to allow annual inspection and to let the volume air out in the off season. Problem is the design. I'd like to be completely flush so feet or supplies won't catch on anything. And they need to be watertight.

Any ideas will be appreciated! Thanks

OK I made a mistake Wharram Tiki #164 IS NOT FOR SALE

Sorry for the confusion, I guess I was in a deep funk. I had been spending weeks grinding, sanding, caulking and painting our house and had no time for anything else. But really after finishing the house last week I really thought over where I'm at in my life. I retired from the cubical life back in 2005 and thought I'd cruise for the next 20 years. Well after a few years I was itching for something different and my wife and I decided to buy an ultra cheap Concrete Geodesic Dome on 5 acres. The house is very cool but wow the work needed was extensive. It only had basic framing inside. Then my own personality quark got involved which make me want to do everything. It doesn't matter if it's plumbing, electrical, carpentry or tiling...I want to do the job. So this house plus building a Wharram and the constant tug-of-war between which has priority sometimes sends me over the edge. And It doesn't help that I also bough a old Pearson Triton and then there is my Hobie Cat the needs sailing, plus I'm actively looking to buy a local business. And I thought I left stress back in the cubical:)  So now I'm in a better place and Tiki is staying here.

So now a little, very little Tiki news....
Work on Tiki this week wasn't much but important. I put 4oz fiberglass cloth on the interior lower hull section in the bow. The idea is that the entire lower 2ft or so is encased in fiberglass to keep the wood dry and rot free. The forward compartment will not get checked often so I can imagine a little standing water sitting for months doing it's damage.

A hard choice but a choice must be made.....For Sale

Yes this project is for sale. I've hit the point is life of too many projects and too little time. I hate to, but probably should give up on a Tiki 30 build. Starboard hull is finished to lower topsides, bulk heads installed, the keel fillet done, all stringers and stiffeners made and some installed. Also for the port hull I've completed the bulkheads, skeg, keel backbone, and stem. Also both rudders P/S are done.

I have all the 6mm and 9mm marine quality, BS1088, plywood to complete the build, 4.5 gallons of Raka epoxy and more than 20 lbs of wood flour. I would be willing to sell for cost of materials which as of today is at about $5900.

I believe I've done high quality work and built a very strong start of a Tiki 30. My guess is this represents about 1/3 completion to a simple build.

Everything is located in Knox Maine, about 12 miles west of Belfast Maine, or 1 hr from Augusta or Bangor.

When not to work...

The other afternoon I has some time to work on Tiki. After deciding to mill a channel in a stringer I set up the dado blades on my trusty old, cheap, Craftsmen table saw. Looking at the picture you can see there are zero "safety" gadgets on this saw. I put safety in quotes since in my experience many of these gadgets just get in the way and make power tools more dangerous. But and its a BIG BUT, these power tools must be treated with respect! Think things through, total concentration. These tools are like a Black Mamba ready to strike. Ready to take a finger off or kill. So here I was about to pass these stringers through.  The problem was, my mind wasn't ready. I was in a funk which had my mind wandering off on stupid tangents. I was an accident waiting to happen. Thankfully I recognized the situation and I just stopped, put everything down and walked away.

I wish I could say I had this type of awareness all the time:) As I've gotten older I do find myself thinking through the "What ifs" of situations much more often. In part this means I always wear a face shield when working with power tools that throw material and wear a respirator when power sanding fiberglass or working with fillers like West System 406 Colloidal Silica.

Experimenting with Xynole -- 374 hours

I got the idea of using Xynole from David at BoatSmith, he is a professional Wharram builder down in Jupiter Florida. He had told me once in a conversation that he used Xynole on the hull exterior instead of FG as called for in the plans. Also on the RAKA site they call Xynole the poor man's Kevlar.  It's supposed to have much higher impact and abrasion resistance than fiberglass.
So in with my last epoxy order I bought a couple yards of 68ich wide 4oz  Xynole. It was $8.75/ydr compared to $6.50/ydr for 60inch wide 4oz plain weave fiberglass cloth.

My test spot was in the stern buoyancy compartment below the stiffener, a small triangular area. I wanted to observe the wet-out up close and make sure the wet-out was thorough. So first I cut a pattern using craft paper then cut the Xynole and did the wet-out on my plastic covered work bench.  I found out it really soaks up the epoxy. It seemed to use 2 or 3 times the amount of epoxy than my 12oz FG biaxial tape. Next the transfer from bench to hull was tricky since the cloth stretches and flops around easily due to the open weave.

Stern buoyancy compartment, Xynole experiment. 

I think it's obvious this is not the material to use for a clear coat:) Above the stiffener the plywood has just 2 coats of epoxy and sanded. Oh well, this is why I did my experiment in the bottom of the buoyancy compartment, a place only viewed by serious contortions. But should there ever be a puncture event in this area, the Xynole will deflect and absorb the hit and hopefully keep water from entry. I'm debating if I should use the Xynole on the interior of the bow buoyancy compartment, this is the area most likely to encounter some mysterious object in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night.

I should note that I've planned not to paint the buoyancy compartments and other lower areas of the hull. I don't ever want creeping wood rot hiding behind paint. If there is a problem, I'd rather see it earlier than later.

Keel Fillets and glassing DONE!!! -- 373 hours

From Stem to 

Stern. 

Not really too much picture worthy with this work, just pouring epoxy to a uniform level in the 7 distinct keel compartments from stem to stern. The front four were actually much easier to get done since I was able to lift the rear of the hull to get the three front compartment keel areas close to level. This made it easy to pour a less thick mixture and let it self level. The rear three compartments took longer since lifting the front wasn't as straight forward as lifting the back. The skeg is only a few cm off the floor so really to get the rear near level the whole hull forward of the skeg needs to be lifted. This seemed too hard, so instead I used thicker mixtures and made small dams about 15cm apart. Then I'd pour a thinner mixture in between, creating steps that then were filled with thicker mixtures. This worked pretty well between bulkheads 4/6 and 6/7.  But from bulkhead 7 to the stern post the buoyancy compartment swings upward quickly so mostly very thickened epoxy is needed to stick to the near vertical gaps.

I feel like I've had a pretty good run this past month but it's time to throttle back on Tiki work and  put more time in to other household projects e.g. crack repairs.  After a minor earthquake last October we had several hairline cracks on the SW dome face. We didn't realize it until this spring when we got back from our southern vacation. So I've started cleaning and caulking, but many hours ahead since we also decided to change house colors.

Don't let this happen.... -- 353 hours

It takes a lot of epoxy to fill the keel and attach stringers/stiffeners so don't do like I did and wait until you start the last gallon bottle of epoxy resin to order your next batch from your favorite supplier:(

The issue is that I have several, what I call, "wet edges" of epoxy kicking and I'm very low on epoxy and about to run out.

With epoxy I use the term "wet edge" (which is from painting) for the time period after pouring during which when new epoxy is poured and it will still chemically bond with the first pour. The type of hardener, the ambient temperature, and volume of epoxy all combine to set the wet edge time frame.

The temperature in my basement is about 72degF and dropping slightly. This past week has been cool and wet here in Maine, for instance today we had a high temp of about 61degF. And I'm using RAKA 606 slow hardener so the wet edge period is about 24 hrs. Around this time the bond becomes less and less chemical and more mechanical until after about a week when it has completely kicked. The point being I what to keep that chemical bond going as it is much stronger than the mechanical bond.  Also after this wet period is when amine blush can develop, although luckily I have virtually no issues with blush at this site.

Lower hull stringers between bulkhead 3 and 4.

A little tip to help spread the hull when installing stringers/stiffeners. First dry fit the port and starboard pieces. I use two screws on each piece to hold the stringer. Then using two pieces of wood with notches over lap them and use safety wire to hold them together. Then using a screw clamp its easy to carefully adjust the spread to get the desired "fair" curve of the hull.